


My Dears

by CherrieBluez



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, Fluff and Humor, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-22
Updated: 2019-02-22
Packaged: 2019-11-03 22:33:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17886383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CherrieBluez/pseuds/CherrieBluez
Summary: A little sequel to Frankly.Regina helps Emma muddle through some feelings, and Henry teases her.





	My Dears

"I win!" Henry announced from the top of Emma's driveway, proping his bike against the side of the house.

"Only because I love you." Regina sighed, slamming her car door shut for dramatic effect.

Henry grinned before coming to an awkward halt, raising a brow in his other mother's general direction. Regina took a glance at the woman; lounging in a fold out chair in the middle of the front yard, but continued her stroll towards Henry. After depositing a grocery bag in his hands she motioned for him to head on inside. And as the kind and intuitive boy he was - he nodded, backing away - before calling out, like the utterly nosey son he was, "Hey Ma. You alright?"

"M'good." Emma acknowledged with a lift of a bottle without so much as a turn of her head.

Henry balked and Regina nudged him again, communicating a silent 'I'll fix it' until he was eventually coaxed inside the house.

Turning slowly on her heel, Regina regarded the woman, who was not so much relaxing as she was sinking within her chair. It was already growing dark, but there was very little chill in the air tonight. And Regina smiled knowingly at the candles dotted around in the grass. Practically placed rather than for romance, the citronella keeping mosquitos at bay. And Regina appreciated the hell out of that. The fact that Emma had accidently created a seductive sight amongst the little glows was all the more charming for its ignorance.

'Play it cool' Regina reminded herself for the umpteenth time that day. And gingerly made her way across the lawn, careful not to sink her heels. "What's a pretty world like you, doing in a big girl like this?"

And despite herself Emma sprayed beer over her lap in a sudden laugh.

"Oh Jesus." Emma grimaced, wiping at the offending spillage. "Was that from The Mummy?"

"Something like that. I thought it might help dissolve this 'air of misery' radiating from you." Regina motioned with a hand, growing impatient with Emma's lack of eye contact. "What is it?"

Emma shrugged, wriggling deeper into the chair, stretching out her jean-clad legs and making a very appealing space between them.

Regina wanted to crawl into it.

"I just... had a day. Y'know?"

"Could you elaborate?"

Emma suddenly dug into her pockets, eventually supplying papers, folded thrice and flapping about as Emma held them out to her.

_Divorce papers_.

Regina felt a jarring flutter in her chest as she looked them over. Lest she seem insensitive, Regina bit back the instinctual smile and adopted a patient expression.

"It's okay," Emma sighed, taking a swig of beer, "you can be happy."

Regina refolded the forms and held them to her stomach, feeling the need to press down on her jumbled nerves. Looking down at Emma's slouched form birthed an uncomfortable slithering of doubt inside of her, but... still, she took a wary step forward.

"...Aren't you?" At Emma's vacant glance Regina twisted the forms in her hands, "Happy, I mean. Now it's all over."

Humming, Emma peeled the sticky label off her bottle, gaze flickering about the yard and into the street as the lamps lit. "More... aggravated?"

At Regina's tilted head Emma sighed. "Having actual proof of my wasted years in physical form is just depressingly...mundane. And I managed to fool myself into thinking I'd found my partner, my own 'true love'." She air quoted. "When really, I'm nothing like my parents. I'd just fallen into the same patterns my various foster folks had, because no shit, I guess they influenced me more than I realised."

Tipping the last remains of beer to her lips she sighed, "I'm a genuine idiot."

The air felt so thick it was difficult to speak. But Regina ached when Emma hurt herself with idiotic thoughts and ideas designed to push away and build walls around her heart.

And Regina knew the despair of mistakes. She'd made the worst of them. And wasn't about to let the blonde fall into that particular pit when she could lift her out with some hard earned words of wisdom.

She stepped forward, "Wow. Deep." At Emma's sharp look Regina softly smiled, offering as much comfort in her voice as possible, "There's no such thing as wasted time, Emma. Experiences, whether good or bad, wanted or undesired... change you. Inspire growth. And while your marriage to the pirate may not have amounted to what you wished, and caused pain instead..." Regina whispered, finally stepping into the space left open between Emma's knees. "It helped you remember your worth, and your strength." Locking their gazes, and unable to resist a prod with the folded forms to Emma's leg, she promised, "An injured heart can heal."

It took a moment, but eventually Emma's guard lifted and her eyes began to shine with a smile that hadn't quite reached her lips yet...

Regina's own smile was warm as she added, "Never let it be said that you're not an idiot, though."

"And there it is." Emma chuckled, relinquishing the sulk that she had no chance of holding to.

Regina smirked, performing a half hearted curtsey before motioning toward the other woman's lap. "Is this seat taken?"

Emma moved her feet immediately to accommodate the Queen whom had already begun to perch sideways upon her lap. Arms circling Emma's neck. Legs draped over the arm rest and Emma's arm supporting Regina's back.

The pair sighed before Regina spoke in sudden excitement. "I should frame it," She flapped the papers.

"...No?"

"We could tea stain it, burn the edges a little. It'll be very crafty, Snow will love it."

"Please don't."

"And find one of those distressed wooden frames! You like distressed wood."

"-I'm actually gonna beg you-"

"I wish you'd told me earlier, I would've brought along balloons and confetti and Henry could've covered you in silly string-"

"-I beg of you woman, do none of those things..."

Regina laughed at Emma's narrowed eyes, fully dubious as she asked, "Not even the silly string?"

"...Maybe the silly string. But only if there's pictures, Snow'll love it."

Regina grinned, marveling at how much she wanted to kiss the pout from Emma's lips. Pepper some across her eyebrows, her cheeks, and squeeze her tightly.

Regina tugged Emma's hair instead.

It was still early days between them, everything still so fresh from their first evening of kisses that the only thing they both felt certain in was Regina's fondness for lounging across Emma.

The morning after their first kiss Regina had blurted it out to Henry as soon as she saw him, wandering the kitchen snacking on a croissant that he nearly threw from the outburst.

"Um...pardon?"

"I said I kissed her." She repeated, marching up to him and snagging a tip of the pastry so abruptly he actually dropped it. "Emma, I mean. Your mother. I took her home and healed her and kissed her. So..." She chewed, considering something unseen in the distance, before finally pinning her son with a frightened stare. "Yeah."

"Oh." It took the poor boy a second to realise the distress his monosyllabic answer caused, but he quickly rallied, "A-And so you like her then?"

"Yes," It seemed his mother wanted to add more, but snapped her mouth shut, urging Henry to continue.

He considered her seriously for a minute.

"So, I mean, I'm a little surprised, you've always been close in your own way I guess but, ...you're pretty touchy-feely and I've never even seen you guys hug."

"We've hugged!"

"Not a lot, not like you and Grandma, or Kathrine or Zelena!"

Regina suddenly looked a little teary eyed. "That's different Henry."

Henry darted forward immediately pulling his tiny mother into his arms, "I'm sorry, I'm not trying to make you cry." He worried, petting her hair.

"You're not." Regina chuckled into his shoulder. "You just made me realise..."

"That you never touch?"

"That it's always meant too much to risk. If I held on too long. If I made her uncomfortable. Even as friends or co-parents or whatever we are, Emma's rejection has always had a tad more sting to it." She let out a humourless laugh.

Henry squeezed her before pulling back, regarding her like a wizened and grown man she was so, so proud of.

"I want to support you, both of you, so I have some questions."

"Of course," Regina wiped a finger under her eyes, and took a breath, grabing her sons hand.

"So you like my mom. Probably have for a long time, and I take it after getting herself in danger yesterday it spurred you to kiss and stuff-"

"-Just kiss."

"Okay, so would it be entirely inappropriate of me to ask if Ma was like, awake when you kissed her?"

The aghast look on his mother's face was almost enough to brake his whole self into choked giggles.

"OF COURSE SHE WAS AWAKE!" Regina spluttered, "Wide awake! Talking! Jibbering on with some nonsense-"

"And then you kissed her."

"And then she kissed me back!"

Henry finally lost it. Letting out a howl that echoed across the house before half slumping over the kitchen counter laughing into his arms.

Regina could do naught but pout at her mean hyena of a child. Her hand still tangled in his.

So, he'd taken it well at least.


End file.
